It’s the players who score 20 points a game who grab most of the attention, but the ones who take away about the same number often go unnoticed.

St. Peter-Marian High senior Terence Watson wouldn’t have it any other way.

Watson, a 6-foot guard, almost always defends against the opponent’s best player, and he almost always has as big an impact on the outcome as those who score double-digit points and make highlight-reel baskets.

“Terence has always been very athletic, but he also has always wanted to play defense and realized how important it is,” said coach Marcus Watson, whose fifth-ranked Guardians are 14-5 and will face North High at 3 p.m. today in a quarterfinal of the T&G Hometeam Worcester City Tournament. “The coaches actually have to get on him at times to get more involved in the offense because he’s so focused on his defensive assignments.”

Terence Watson’s perspective has helped give him the desire to do some of basketball’s dirtiest jobs. He considers himself lucky to be a starter on a team that will contend for the Central Mass. Division 1 championship. He also considers himself lucky to be playing basketball competitively.

As an eighth-grader, Watson suffered an ACL tear playing football. Because the injury occurred at a relatively young age, Watson didn’t have corrective surgery until after his sophomore basketball season.

“It was a scary injury but it didn’t bother me too much and I basically played through it wearing a brace,” Watson said, “but now that I’ve had it fixed and I’m starting to gain strength, I feel like I’m quicker and faster than ever.”

Watson uses his quickness to his advantage on defense, but also does plenty of mental preparation, deciding before he hits the floor what he’ll try to take away from the opposing scorer.

“I’ll usually have an idea of what most of the guys I’m guarding like to do,” he said. “I’ll let him kind of show me what he’s trying to do. Most of the time, I’m just denying the ball and playing as hard as I can. It’s not like I don’t have guys get by me at times, but I have a lot of confidence in my teammates and their help defense.”

Watson asserted himself as one of the state’s best individual defenders in an early-season meeting between the Guardians and Catholic Memorial High. Watson held Knights star and 20-point-per-game scorer Gullien Smith to just six points in SPM’s upset victory.

“I think I have less of an offensive game than a lot of other guys, but I know there are other ways to help the team win, and one of those is by stopping the other team’s best player,” Watson said.

Watson said he doesn’t have extra incentive or motivation based on his opponent in any given game, but he rattled off the names of South High guards Rod Milton and K.C. Cunningham and Wachusett Regional’s Zack Berman as some of his toughest marks to date.

The Doherty High girls’ team played what may have been one of the area’s wildest games Friday night. The Highlanders dropped a 70-68 decision to St. Bernard’s High after relinquishing a 20-point lead, then coming back from a 12-point deficit to tie the score with four minutes left.

Doherty coach Jim Reynolds chose to look at the bright side, which is easier to do when your team is 14-4 and ranked sixth in the Hometeam media poll.

“I look at it as the kids showed some resiliency coming back from a big deficit,” said Reynolds, whose team begins play in a loaded Westboro Invitational Tournament against Millbury High at noon today. “Our losses have come against very good teams and we’ve had some wins against some very good teams.”

The Highlanders achieved two goals already this season — winning the Inter-High Holiday Tournament and the Inter-High regular season title.

Doherty has had its most success when pushing the tempo. The Highlanders are averaging 54 points and feature a balanced offense.

Jayna Cormier is one of the area’s most talented players and is averaging a double-double (18 points, 13 rebounds). Junior Lina Graham chips in with 11 points per game.

Senior point guard Tia Conteh is the pacesetter and floor leader while classmate Emily Capstick is the team’s best defender.

Two of Doherty’s losses were against top-ranked Holy Name High.

“We’re just trying to be as prepared as we can possibly be for each game, and work toward some of the high goals that the kids have set,” Reynolds said.

Contact Tom Flanagan a sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.

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